404 QUARRYING Table Typical sequence of events Event Action agency Geological considerations Market feasibility study Feasibility of prospective quarry Proposed operator Proposed operator and financial partners Development of topographic contour map Conceptual design of proposed quarry Consultant to proposed operator Nature, value, and cost to produce the end product(s) Estimated unit cost of product(s); cost to develop plant, as amortized over estimated quantity of stone reserves; estimated cost to close the site at termination of productive life; nature and value of end use of site Basis for planning of property geological exploration plan Phase I geological exploration Tentative facility operational concept Proposed operator, with assistance of consultants or corporate engineering staff Consultant to proposed owner or corporate engineering staff Proposed operator, operator staff, or consultants to proposed operator Environmental impact report By consultants to proposed quarry operator Environmental impact statement By state, county, or provincial public environmental agency Land use zoning application Proposed owner Permit application By proposed operator to the public agency holding regulatory control Proposed owner, staff, and consultants Operation, compliance, expansion, and/or closure Location and bounds of the bedrock deposit; identification of potential geological constraints to operation and closure; management of groundwater and production spoil Prove the existence of minimal reserve of suitable bedrock for production of stone product(s) Identifies stages or phases of site development and product treatment; staging, groundwater, and surface water control features; and management of production spoil Geological map of soil, bedrock, and groundwater conditions; hydrologic and hydrogeologic impact; control of dust, fugitive emissions, spoil, and runoff Identifies all physical and social environmental impacts and proposes appropriate mitigative measures; identifies and quantitifies risks to public health and welfare Identifies geological constraints related to nature land use, as such impact provisions of land use specified in the General Plan of the governmental administrative body; shows that proposed quarry is an acceptable land use in consequence of facility operational concept Mainly equivalent to that of the environmental impact report All above noted geological considerations Table Major sources of environmental impact of quarrying Impact Relevance Geological considerations Alteration of groundwater regime Quarries, as cuts and depressions, interrupt groundwater flow and create artificial flow gradients and discharge points/areas Extraction of stone creates breakage and some comminution (size reduction), resulting in small particles subject to wind movement Results from dust caught up in the path of runoff Most of these ‘interruptions’ create, in fact, a ‘shadow’ of impact on the position and flow path of groundwater Method of extraction, method of breakage, and method of size treatment for market product Fugitive dust Fugitive sediment Loss of ground support to adjacent activities and structures Slope instability could be induced here in the highwall, with the potential to ravel or migrate backward into adjacent land and buildings Collateral damage from flying rock and ground motion of production blasting Physical guidelines are well established for controla a See guidelines of the United States Bureau of Mines, for example Reduction of amounts of dust and other small particles produced; methods of entrapment and sequestering from release to the environment Generally mitigated geologically by lateral buffer ground separating the highwall from adjacent activities and attention to the effects of adverse geological structure in the highwall rock (such as dips into the quarry) Control related to empirical relationships of burden, ratio of explosive charge to mass of rock to be shot, and pattern and time delay of charges